Laura Bartz, Chapter 4, Question 5

One part that I found particularly interesting was when Wheelan was talking about the amount of restrictions that governments around the world impose of new businesses to be licensed. One example of how this doesn't work is the start of the Arab Spring. Tunisia imposed a licensing fee that was generally out of the price range for most business owners. So when the officials came around to different stands or businesses that didn't have the license they would bribe the officials and be able to stay open. There was a fruit stand owner who ever day would use all of the money he had to buy the fruit for that day to sell and repeat. So when the official came by to check if he had a license and he didn't he had nothing left to bribe the official with and all of his fruit to sell for that day was taken away. The fruit stand owner went to the different government buildings that he was sent to by the last one but he ended up getting so frustrated that none of them would listen to him, that to make people hear his story and know the corruption that was happening, he lit himself on fire. An extreme way of dealing with it, but it is a perfect example of how having a very heavily regulated system for new businesses doesn't work for a stronger economy.